In With the New
by bracken99
Summary: Growing up in care means seeing many new people come, while others go. But with each new arrival, in this case the Gallagher siblings, comes new friendships and new enemies. Set after series 2 of The Dumping Ground. Previously called Arrivals and Departures.
1. Liam's Arrival

**A/N: This story is set at the end of Series 2 of The Dumping Ground but doesn't really take into account any of the webseries: Liam's Story.**

**Current people living at Ashdene Ridge include Frank, Tee, Johnny, Carmen, Harry, Rick, Tyler, Jody, Faith,Floss, Mo and Bailey.**

Chaos filled the entire kitchen of Ashdene Ridge care home. With breakfast often came arguments about the quantity of food each person received, as well as the quality. Loud chatter also added to the deafening sound coming from the single room, mixing conversations about football with girly gossip, playful pranks and the younger children's creative games.

Normally, it would be unusual for an arrival at the front door to be heard over such a racket. On this particular day, however, one person's eagerness to get into the house was much louder than the excited chatter coming from the children and teenagers that made up the majority of the house.

A loud, frustrated and angered knocking (obviously ignoring the use of a doorbell) successfully brought the kitchen to silence - a deed of which both May-Li and Mike, after many attempts, had deemed impossible.

Intrigued by the furious knocking, and what sounded like shouting to him, Bailey pushed back his chair, allowing the legs to scrap against the tiled flooring. Leaving the kitchen, he headed straight for the door, fully aware from the scraping noise that had erupted behind him, that he was not alone in his short journey.

Before he could reach out to open the door, Mike had stepped in front of him, deciding to do it himself. The person knocking seemed especially irritated and he thought it best if an adult answered the door to whoever was on the other side.

As Mike opened the door, there was a burst of movement as the teenagers behind him, since the younger children had remained in the kitchen with May-Li, too hungry to be distracted, attempted to peer around him to get a good look of the knocker.

The knocker, meanwhile, was too preoccupied arguing with a policeman to acknowledge Mike and the teenagers staring at him in amazement.

Bag in one hand and black jacket in the other, the teenage boy in front of them also possessed a rucksack hanging over his left shoulder. His brown eyes flickered in anger as he stared at the policeman, better known to him as his brother.

A grin appeared on Frank's face as he recognised his former close friend: Liam O'Donovan. They had, at one point in time, been close like brothers but that bond had slowly drifted apart after Liam had left the Dumping Ground to live with his older brother: Jack. Until this moment, Frank had been annoyed with the slightly younger teenager for not staying in contact but all memories of this anger had escaped him at the sight of his old friend stood on the care home doorstep, bag in hand.

Liam, however, was currently too busy arguing with Jack to acknowledge Frank's existence.

"Now you're just overreacting and causing a scene! I'll only be gone for five days - 14 maximum!" Was the first part of the argument that Frank picked up from with Jack looking desperate to calm Liam down.

"If it's not that long, why were you trying to get your new-found girlfriend who, by the way, I know nothing about, to look after me? I'm seventeen! I can look after myself for two weeks! It's hardly rocket science!" Liam snapped back in response. Although he knew deep down that it wasn't Jack's fault that he had been given an undercover mission, it was the fact that his brother had constantly been treating him like a toddler that drove him insane. And the idea of a babysitter was the last straw. Deciding his only bet was the place he had spent some time of his life in, Liam had set off on foot towards Ashdene Ridge, not expecting Jack to follow him the entire way.

"Can you blame me? After that party you threw when you were home alone for a single night, do you seriously expect me to trust you for five days?"

"Stuff your five days," Liam snapped, pushing Mike out of the way as he stepped into the care home. "I always felt more welcome here anyway."

Jack opened his mouth to respond but no response was heard. The only thing heard by the teenagers was the sound of the front door slamming shout as Liam let out all his anger on the door. In a swift movement, the door was locked and the key nestled safely in Liam's pocket.

His hand clenched in a fist, in both anger and to secure the key from anyone else's grasp, in order to delay the opening of the door until the spare key was fetched, Liam span round to face the onlooking crowd, consisting of many faces he recognised and those he did not.

As Liam's eyes swept over the faces of the crowd, his eyes rested on Mike's mouth, which had just opened, obviously ready to speak. Unable to face one of Mike's short attempts to get him to 'see the other side of the story', after Mike had not spent the last few years living with Jack, Liam pushed his way through the crowd and hurried up the stairs, ignoring the calls from behind him.

Having not been in the house before, Liam was unsure as to where he was going. The long, brown corridor held many doors, all of them leading to the unknown for Liam. Taking the second door on the right, Liam quickly entered, not wanting to be found yet – he didn't want to have to explain himself to anyone. He had his own reasons for being fed up with Jack –and it wasn't just because of the most recent events. That had just been the final straw for him. He didn't, however, want to live alone in one of those halfway houses. The responsibility of keeping his own house in check was something that scared Liam quite a bit – although he would never admit that to anyone.

Meanwhile, downstairs, the kids had returned to their breakfast after being encouraged by Mike that it was best to leave Liam alone until he chose to rejoin them. Until then, to the annoyance of Bailey and Jody (both of whom were fairly impatient) they would need to remain downstairs.

"This is pointless," Bailey complained. He sat leaning back in his chair, his breakfast bowl empty in front of him. "Surely he doesn't need all of upstairs to himself."

Many of the others mumbled and nodded in agreement, many of them having something that they wanted to do in their bedrooms.

"I'm sure he doesn't want twelve kids pestering him right now either," Came May-Li's response.

Mike was in the office, facing Jack who sat on the sofa. To Mike's confusion, Jack didn't seem too upset about Liam's angered decision to returned to the care home - which would be impossible without a valid reason as to why a seventeen year old shouldn't be going to a halfway house.

"I must admit, I have sensed this coming for a while now," Jack spoke, obviously concluding that he should do his best to provide an explanation. "I've just been trying to help Liam to build a stable future for himself and he just didn't seem to like the authority."

Mike nodded slightly. Having known Liam for quite some time, it did sound a lot like something that would annoy him. "I'm sure once he's calmed down though and ready to come down, he'll be willing to return with you."

Jack sighed. He leant forwards, placed his head in his hands and remained silent for a few seconds. He then lifted his head back up and shook it. "I'm sorry, Mike. I've tried but it just hasn't worked out." With that, Jack stood and left the office, letting himself out of the house.

Back up stairs, oblivious to the events that were occurring below, Liam looked around the room that he had stumbled into, it didn't take him long to come to two different conclusions. Either they had a room free of they were expecting a new arrival.

The room was bare of any decorations, filled with only the relevant furniture and a single bed tucked away in the corner, the mattress bare. The walls were a dark brown and it was evident in some places that wallpaper use to nestle in that spot. Liam smiled. There may be room for him.

A knock on the door told Liam that Mike had finally found him. Stepping forwards, Liam placed his hand on the doorhandle and froze momentarily before pulling it open.

Mike stood in the doorway, a certain look on his face that Liam had seen many times before. "Liam, about Jack..." He began.

Knowing what Mike was about to say - about how he had been returned to his old home once again - Liam interrupted him. With a grin, he glanced around the room. "So, is this where I'll be staying?"

Mike, who understood that Liam had assumed what he was going to say, shook his head. "We have three siblings arriving some time soon. This is for the younger boy. I'm sure the two twins will be happy to share. I just need to have a conversation with your social worker. Really, you should be going to a halfway house."

Liam sat down on the bed and looked up at Mike. There was no need for words. In one small second, Mike noticed a flash of fear. It was over in an instance, but he had seen it.


	2. New Arrivals?

**Thanks to ****_Linneagb _****for the review. I really appreciate it.**

In the kitchen, Johnny, Carmen, Tee and Frank were sat in a huddle at the top end of the table. Having known Liam for a longer period of time than the others in the room, they were more concerned, and equally interested, in what was going on.

"Surely, he can stay here with us now. Just like before!" Tee grinned, the four deep in conversation. She had enjoyed it back at Elm Tree House when Liam was there, with the fun he'd constantly bring. It had seemed to have been lacking more recently.

"Don't be stupid, Tee! He's seventeen. You can't stay here at that age!" Johnny responded almost instantly, ruining Tee's thoughts.

"But Frank's still here and he's nearly eighteen!" Tee shot back in irritation. More recently, Johnny had always been trying to prove him wrong.

"That's different because he's-" Johnny cut off after briefly glancing at Frank.

"What?" Frank asked him, staring straight at Johnny who looked a little uneasy. Carmen watched with interest but also felt uneasy for Frank, knowing that Johnny was not known for thinking through what he was saying.

Tee, fed up with Johnny not answering Frank, repeated the question, already sensing an answer. "He's what, Johnny?"

Johnny looked up from the room, his eyes burning with anger. Why couldn't anyone just leave things be? He was constantly pestered about anything he did do or say, or otherwise, didn't. Either way, they were going to be annoyed with him for a while and him them. "Well, he's different, isn't he?"

"Johnny!" Carmen protested, with what reminded Johnny of a mock like gasp.

"I can't believe you, Johnny," Tee pushed her chair back in irritation and hurried over to join Faith and Mo's conversation - whatever it was. She was too irritated with Johnny to speak to him. He always had to voice his strong, stupid opinions.

Fed up with the looks he was receiving from everyone, many of whom had obviously been eavesdropping in their conversation, he too pushed his chair back in frustration. The power he gave the chair knocked it over, crashing onto the hard floor below. Ignoring May-Li's cries behind him, Johnny ran out of the kitchen, shouldering Liam as he entered through the doorway.

Glancing over his shoulder at the fleeing Johnny, Liam turned back to the others in the kitchen with a picture of disbelief on his face. "Has he still not got control of their temper of his yet." As he spoke, he headed towards the table, swiping a slice of toast from May-Li's plate on the kitchen side and smirking at her cries of protest.

Frank, who had remained silent during the outburst, spoke: "Nor his judgement of what is right and wrong."

"Just ignore whatever he said, mate," Liam spoke as picked Johnny's chair up and sat down. "From my experience he's usually wrong."

"Not always!" Tee piped up. Although Johnny had annoyed her today, she had to defend her brother. Although his actions at breakfast had been inexcusable, he had often done something wrong with good intentions.

Liam decided it was best not to respond and was grateful when Mike entered. That way, no one would expect a response and should hopefully have forgotten by the time Mike had finished.

"As you all know, we currently have three bedrooms spare. By the end of the week, they will all be full. Liam will be staying with us for the meantime. I shall be speaking to his social worker soon to determine whether it shall be a long-term arrangement or not. Moving on to-" Mike was interrupted by Jody jumping up to her feet.

"We're not getting anymore new people are we?" She questioned, causing a full discussion to break out.

"We can't fit many more chairs around this table!" Rick added to Jody's comment to which their were murmurs of agreement.

"And we already have to wait way too long to get into the bathroom!" Carmen called out, fed up with the queue each morning and not wanting it to increase.

"New people means new targets!" Tyler shouted out, his mind obvious set on the new pranks he desperately wanted to try out.

"I like new people!" Mo spoke up, bringing the discussion to an end.

"And so you should," Mike smiled at Mo's positivity. "After all, you were all new to us once." Everyone burst out in laughter after watching Liam mouth along with Mike. The sentence was one he had heard a lot during his life in care. "We're not entirely sure about when they will be arriving as they have a long journey ahead of themselves and we don't know how much they shall be stopping."

"Where are they coming from?" Bailey asked, trying to determine whether Mike was exaggerating or not.

"Ireland."

"Ireland!" Many voices exclaimed at the same time.

Mike nodded, unsure of how much to say. "They're siblings of three and although care homes like this don't get much of a choice as to who they take as it mostly depends on space, many of them don't like taking on siblings. As many of you know, it's hard to find foster families."

"Too right," Once again, Mike was interrupted. This time by Johnny who had been standing out in the corridor listening to the conversation. After a quick glance over the people sitting at the kitchen table, he noticed they were all still a little uncomfortable about what had happened. May-Li also noticed this and directed Johnny to sit at the breakfast bar.

After Johnny had settled down in his seat, Mike continued. "I just want to give you a little bit of a warning. These three have been through quite a lot. As you know, I can't tell you what, but it has had a little bit of an effect on them. The youngest, Lachlann is eight years old. He's mute - by choice - so don't force him to talk. If he ever will, he will from his own decision and when he is ready. If I hear of any of you bribing or hinting for him to say something, there will be consequences. As many of you are older than him, we expect you, just like anyone else, to care for him, not to make fun of him or make a game out of it."

Mike paused to make sure everyone was keeping up with the amount of information. He received a few nods which encouraged him to continue. "The older two are twins. A little inconveniently, they are pretty much identical. They're eleven years old, named Tristan and Cronin. As another warning, from what I understand, Tristan's emotions can suddenly change. He shall be treated no differently from the rest of you, I just want to make sure you take a little care around him. Cronin and Tristan shall be sharing the bigger room."

At that point, the doorbell rang. Mike had just about managed to finish everything he had wanted to say.

For the second time that morning, the children flocked to the door. Whispers about whether it was the new children or not filled the conversations that Mike heard as he wrestled through the crowd in order to reach the front door. Although it was entirely possible that it was Lachlann, Cronin and Tristan, he believed it was more possible that it was Liam's social worker: James, who Mike had phoned to arrange a meeting before speaking to everyone in the kitchen.

As he opened the door, everyone quickly dispersed as their eyes did, in fact, meet James. The middle aged man, upon Mike's invitation, stepped into the house, greeted Mike, May-Li and Liam before being directed into the office. Liam lingered outside, to see if he needed to be there or not and was grateful when Mike told him to go and play computer games with Frank.

Liking the sound of that idea, Liam set off to find his old friend with the intention of catching up and playing games. He just hoped they wouldn't have to kick Johnny off the computer, an event that had happened an awful lot at Elm Tree House. At least spending time with his old friend would speed up the time it would take until he found out he could return to Ashdene Ridge on a permanent basis.


	3. The Wait

Johnny wasn't on the computer. Instead, he was up in his room, lying casually on top of his duvet, book in hand. As he turned the page,he heard his door creaking open – something he had been asking Mike to fix fora while now. Glancing up from the new page, his eyes were met by Tee standing awkwardly in the doorway, obviously unsure as to whether she was welcomed in or not.

From his silence, and the fact that he returned to reading the book in front of him, Tee could tell that he wasn't too fussed as to whether they did speak or not. Walking into his room, she closed the door behind her before walking towards his bed. She sat down on the edge of the mattress. "Everyone's downstairs," she pointed out after some more silence,having been unsure of what to say.

For a moment, there was silence and Tee was a little worried that he was ignoring her, hiding behind the book so that he did not have to face her. But, after what seemed like ages to Tee, Johnny closed the book and placed it down on his bedside table. "They're probably all speculating about the new kids," Johnny shrugged, obviously not as enthusiastic about the news of these new arrivals as he had been with others.

"What's wrong with that?" Tee asked him. He had never had a problem with everyone doing that before. In fact, Tee could remember Johnny joining in massively the last time they had received news of an arrival.

"These kids mean competition," Johnny responded simply using a tone that suggested that it had been obvious.

Tee stared at him for a moment, unsure whether she had heard him correctly or not. "Competition?" She repeated in disbelief. The oldest two were three years younger than her. To be openly honest, she had no idea what johnny was going on about.

"If foster parents come in, sights set on siblings to foster, their choice won't only be limited to us anymore. And since the trio are younger and 'cuter' than the two of us, then they'd obviously get a happy ever after while we continue to be stuck here," Johnny snapped yet looked relieved to have finally gotten that out of his system.

"I don't know Johnny," Tee replied, having never been sure how to respond to Johnny's concerns (and obsession) over being fostered. Johnny just shrugged to show his acknowledgement of her comment. "We're all downstairs, if you decide to join us," Tee added, before standing up and leaving the room.

Downstairs, Liam and Frank, who had recently been shoved off the computer by Bailey (along with the argument that they had been on it for more than an hour), were at the pool table. Everyone else, bar Johnny, Tee and Bailey were gathered around watching them as they spoke among each other.

"I wonder how much longer it'll be until they arrive,"Carmen spoke up, looking towards the window.

"Mike must have some sort of idea as to when they'll begetting here," Rick shrugged, confused as to why the three siblings' social worker would not be able to give a precise date, let alone time.

"He does have some sort of idea," Liam replied, as he took a shot. He straightened up as play passed over to Frank. "He said it'll be within the next couple of days."

"Normally we get a date," Rick pointed out with a shrug. He didn't really care too much about when they did arrive. He just felt a little unsettled that they could literally arrive at any point, including the middle of lunch, or the middle of the night.

"If they're coming from Ireland, perhaps their social worker didn't know when the next ferry was?" Was the only suggestion that Faith could come up with as to why a date had not been made clear.

"Do you think Lachlann will play with me?" Floss, who was the same age as they had been told the youngest of the three arrivals would be, asked, looking directly at Faith for the answer.

At this point, Harry's head shot up. Before Faith had a chance to reply to Floss' question, Harry had begun speaking. "Me and Mo play with you!" He reminded her. Would the arrival of this new boy mean that he would lose one of his closest friends in the Dumping Ground?

"I know that!" Floss smiled. "But he might want to play."

In the office, Mike was nearing the end of his discussion with James when the phone rang for the second time in a few minutes. Glancing across, he noticed that it was the same number as the phone call he had ignored before. "Can you give me a minute," he said to James as he stood up to answer the phone, assuming it would be important. There was a brief moment of silence whilst the person on the other end of the phone spoke. "Twenty minutes away?"Mike repeated what he had been told as he glanced at his watch to check the time. "Okay, thank you. I'll see you then." Placing the phone down, Mike returned to James, hoping it wouldn't take much longer.

Twenty minutes away, a black, large people-carrier was making its way down a narrow countryside road. Sat on the back row were three boys. The youngest was staring out the window next to him, eager to catch a glimpse of the new place that they would be living in. But for now, all he could see was the overgrown hedges which engulfed the car. The other two boys looked almost identical, except from the clothes that they were wearing and the scar that the boy sitting in the middle had under his left eye. Headphones in his ears, with music blaring through them from the phone he was busy playing games on, the eleven year old was pretty much oblivious to the world around him. His slightly younger sibling (by nine minutes) was sat by the other window, behind the driver – their social worker: Trent. Over the years, the siblings had gotten to know Trent quite well, mostly due to the boy sat in the middle, Cronin Gallagher, getting himself into many different situations, wherein which Trent had been required to help him to get out of such a situation. The social worker, who seemed to have gotten attached to the Gallagher siblings over the year, though he would never have admitted it, had just finished making a call on his hands-free device.

The youngest boy: Lachlann, couldn't help but smile. After along journey, one of which he had thought would never end, they were finally within twenty minutes of their final destination. He was feeling tired and hungry and was therefore hopeful that he could remove these feelings upon arrival at the new care home by eating then having a rest. Yet, he knew from some recent experiences that not all the residents in care homes were overly friendly, much to his dismay.

Upon hearing they didn't have much further to travel, Tristan had nudged Cronin to tell him the news. Slowly and reluctantly, the slightly older boy removed his headphones in order to hear what his brother had to say.

Tristan, himself wasn't sure how to feel. By now, he was used to moving care homes as, for the year or so they had been in care, there had not been many care homes with enough space, or willing to, take on three young children at once. One children's home had finally been willing to take them on and had satisfied Trent enough to be their permanent place of residence. Whilst there had been others that they had stayed at who were happy to have the three siblings, Trent seemed to be looking for one place in particular for unclear reasons.

To Cronin's annoyance, that one particular place happened to be in England. This meant that they had to leave their place of birth and travel, by car, for hours in order to satisfy Trent. He couldn't help but feel that Trent, who had been born in London, yet spent his teenage life in Ireland, just wanted to return to England. Since the young social worker was fairly new to the profession, as Cronin had discovered recently, he currently only had the Gallagher siblings to watch out for, explaining to the siblings how he so easily and quickly left Belfast behind him.

Meanwhile, at Ashdene Ridge, Mike was locking the front door after showing James the way out. Glancing at his watch, there were ten minutes until the siblings were due to arrive. Returning the key to the hook to the top right of the door. He then made his way to the living room where, to his delight, he found all the children were already gathered together.

Johnny stood near to Tee, watching Liam and Frank play alongside everyone else and providing encouragement. After Tee had left his room, he had remained there for a further five minutes before growing bored, having never been keen on books, and cautiously joining the others in the living room.

"Right! Everyone, listen up," Mike called out in order to get everyone's attention. "I have a brief announcement and then you can all return to what you had been previously doing."

"That means stop using the computer for the time-being, Bailey," May-Li added after Mike had paused, looking directly at the football-mad boy who had just paused a football-based game and removed his attention away from the computer screen.

"Alright, so, Liam, you're able to stay until you feel more into the idea of having your own house," Mike decided to inform him before moving on to other matters. He glanced down at his watch to check the time. "Also, the Gallagher's, that's the new siblings, are expected to arrive in five minutes."

Upon finishing his sentence, the doorbell rang.


	4. Settling in - One Way or Another

**A/N: From now on, the chapters are most likely to be longer, as I have planned them with more detail than the past three. Therefore, I probably won't be updating as quickly due to the increase in length.**

**Also, as you have probably noticed, I've changed the title (and the summary) of this story. It's not something that I plan to do often, and I've been putting it off, but I decided that I really wasn't happy with the title that I came up with when I uploaded the first chapter in the middle of the night. Expect this new one to stay for a lot longer!**

**_EvangelineRainbow x_**** – Liam is one of my favourite's too, which is why I brought him back. Thanks for your review!**

**_Linneagb_**** – Lachlann is pronounced 'Lock-lun' and Gallagher is 'Gall-ag-er'. I hope that helps! Thanks for your reviews!**

**_BizarrePineapple15_**** – Thank you for your review and those comments! I really appreciate them.**

Settling In… One Way or Another

The Gallagher siblings, alongside 22 year old Trent Jacobs, stood at the door of Ashdene Ridge. Cronin's thoughts were resting on the music his phone contained. That phone was in his back pocket. He had reluctantly placed it there after Trent had asked him many times not to have his eyes glued to the screen upon first meeting his new housemates.

Tristan was watching Lachlann, almost protectively, knowing how uneasy his younger brother could get when it came to meeting new people. Unlike Tristan, Lachlann deeply cared about what people thought about him and both Tristan and Cronin had had many sleepless nights in the past trying toexplain to Lachlann that not everyone was going to find him easy to get on with. These attempts, however, had failed with very little success at all. In fact, Tristan sometimes wondered if their attempts to quench the problem had instead made the whole thing worse.

Lachlann meanwhile, was completely oblivious to his sibling's thoughts. He was too busy staring at the door in front of him, anticipation sparkling in his eyes as he waited for the door to open and reveal what was behind it.

After what seemed like years to Lachlann, the door finally opened, revealing two adults – one male and one female. The younger one (the female) was the one that he assumed reached the door first, due to her being positioned closer to the door whilst the man was stuck behind a group of thirteen children.

"Alright everyone! Out the way. At least let them through the front door before you crowd them!" The man, who Trent had previously told them was named Mike, called out as attempt to get them to clear a path from him so that he could reach Trent and, presumably have a conversation.

Before long, Cronin found himself being ushered across the threshold by Trent, with Tristan and Lachlann close behind him. The experience felt almost surreal. In his experience, the care workers would have to really encourage the other children, perhaps even bribe them, in order to get them to meet the new children. And even then, there was never a genuine atmosphere of a warm welcome. This was completely different. These children in front of him did not need any encouragement. They seemed eager to talk and no matter how much Mike and the female care worker asked them to give the siblings any breathing space, their requests would be ignored.

It wasn't long before the two gave up, disappearing into, what Cronin assumed to be the office from the little he could see through the blinds, with Trent. After the adults had left, it didn't take the other children too long to begin to disperse. Glancing behind him, with the intention to check if Lachlan was okay, his eyes were only met by the bags that his youngest brother had ditched before wondering off. Turning to his right, he saw that Tristan, too, had disappeared, leaving his dark blue backpack on the floor where he had previously been standing.

Dumping his bags with Lachlann's, as they had yet to be shown to their rooms, Cronin set off to try and figure out where either of his brother's had gone. As he walked, he couldn't help but feel a little bit irritated that they had both left without a single word, or, in Lachlann's case, signal as to the fact that they were leaving him.

* * *

Lachlann was upstairs in a room decorated to look like a jungle, surrounded by three other children, all around his age – though looking slightly older than he was. He hadn't intended to leave his brothers without any warning but before he could get Cronin or Tristan's attention, he was being pulled away by a red-headed girl and two boys - one with glasses, the younger without.

Now, he sat on a surprisingly comfortable bed in a jungle-like room being given introduction by his three kidnappers.

The girl, who wore a purple dress, spoke first. "My name's Floss, I'm eight years old – like you!" She skipped across the room and picked up a stuffed giraffe from the windowsill. "This is Jeff!"

"He used to be mine!" The blonde haired boy spoke, taking Lachlann's attention from Floss and the stuffed giraffe – named Jeff – to the unnamed younger one of the two boys. The one that Lachlann had currently named: 'the one without glasses'. "My name's Harry," he added quickly when he noticed Lachlann watching him inquisitively.

"He's nine!" Floss piped up again, making Lachlann smile as he realised that she was the opposite to him when it came to talking. From what he had seen so far, she couldn't keep quiet for long.

Harry didn't seem to mind that she had spoken for him. He was too busy telling the boy with glasses that it was his turn. Although, at this point Lachlann could not see the point in the boy having his turn. From the fact that Harry had just spoken, not exactly quietly: "Mo, it's your turn!" It certainly didn't take a genius to work out that the boy with the glasses was called Mo.

Yet the boy with glasses still chose to introduce himself: "I'm Mo. I'm ten."

"And you're…" Harry began before hesitating. Lachlann watched him as the slightly older boy tried to remember what Mike had said his name was. "Laurence?" He finally came out with, knowing it began with an 'L'.

Lachlann shook his head in reply, trying not to smile. He knew it wasn't a very common name and was therefore hard to remember.

"No, Harry! It was something like… Lloyd!" Mo came out with.

"It's not that short!" Harry protested.

By now, Floss was laughing and Lachlann smiled too after catching her eye. "It's Lachlann!" She managed to get out between laughing. Although Lachlann was glad that he didn't have to resort to writing it down, he had been interested in seeing what else Mo and Harry could come up with. Although, he was surprise that Floss had kept quiet for so long if she had remembered it since the beginning.

Obviously not completely believing Floss, both Mo and Harry immediately turned to Lachlann for confirmation. He nodded eagerly whilst smiling. As he glanced around the jungle-themed room, he decided that he quite liked it in this new care home. Within minutes of arrival, he had made three friends: Floss, Harry and Mo.

* * *

Cronin began his search for Lachlann and Tristan upstairs. As he reached the top of the stairs, however, he realised that he faced a problem. He did not know anyone at this care home and somehow expected to find one of his brother's in a room which could have anything waiting inside.

Pushing thoughts of man-eating lions and poisonous snakes out of his head, Cronin decided to try the next door that he was heading towards. He came to a halt outside the light brown door. Glancing around him, he confirmed that the hallway was empty. He had been hoping to spot someone who could perhaps tell him where one of his siblings were. Unable to do that, Cronin cautiously pushed the light brown door open and poked his head through.

The door must have creaked or something for the two boys, who had been huddled over something, turned around when Cronin had looked inside. The two boys, who were quite a bit older than him, stood up. The brown haired boy walked over and pulled the door open, whilst the taller boy remained further back.

"I'm not sure what it was like at the care home you've just come from," the brown haired boy spoke in what seemed like a half-friendly, half-challenging tone. "But here, we knock on doors."

"Fine, I'll remember that for next time," Cronin dismissed it, not overly interested in rules and whatnot. "What were you doing?" He asked, nodding over to the other boy who seemed to be holding something behind his back.

"None of your business," The brown haired boy responded. "Me and Frank, right, we're just minding our own business. Keeping to ourselves. So do you think you could just say, or do, whatever you were going to do when you first came in here then leave us alone?"

"I was looking for my brothers," Cronin replied, not caring about that anymore. He was more intrigued about what the two boys were doing. His eyes scanned the room, trying to pick up any clues as to what they were doing.

"We haven't seen them," The brown haired boy spoke again,with a shrug. "Is that all?"

"You're planning something," Cronin pointed out.

"Good observation skills!"

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing that concerns you."

"Come on! I can help."

There was a silence. Cronin smiled. Silence was good. Silence meant that he was considering the offer. The brown hair boy glanced across to Frank for guidance, who just shrugged. Returning his gaze to Cronin, the boy, who had been trying to close the door, pulled it open and stepped back, letting Cronin in.

"Now, my young apprentice, have you ever heard of Liamade?"

* * *

Tristan entered the living room and looked around with interest. There was a TV, a pool table a computer, on which a boy a few years older than himself was playing football games on. A couple of people were sat watching a TV show that Tristan had never seen before. He wasn't the biggest fan of TV though, so hadn't expected to have recognised it.

It was the pool table that interested Tristan the most. Although he had never enjoyed watching other people play pool, or snooker, whether in front of him, or on the TV, he had, strangely enough, always wanted to have a go at playing the game himself. The eagerness to play had probably been brought on by the small argument that he and Cronin had once had, where they had both claimed that they would be better at it when seeing a pool table in a shop. He made a mental note to play with Cronin sometime soon as he slowly walked towards the pool table.

His foot knocked against something as he walked forwards. At first, he thought nothing of it. That was, until he heard a yell of frustration from the boy at the computer. It turned out, he had knocked the computer chair which had caused the boy to lose his football game. "You imbecile!" The boy yelled as he knocked the chair over. It landed just to Tristan's right, and had narrowly avoided his foot.

"Calm down! It's just a game," Tristan tried to remain casual as the boy lost his temper, something that Tristan could see happening to him soon if the boy continued.

At that point, something that Tristan had not expected happened. From the friendly greeting he, Cronin and Lachlann had received, he hadn't expect that, just minutes later, he have someone running straight for him. Fortunately, Tristan had fast reactions. He ducked down and rolled over just before the impact would have occurred. The boy's reaction wasn't so fast and he ran straight into the couch, falling backwards and landing awkwardly on his wrist, yelling out in pain, making Tristan jump in surprise.

The yell attracted the attention of Mike, Trent and the female care worker, who Trent had not informed them of prior to arriving. "What is going on in here?" Mike exclaimed. Upon entering the room, he saw Johnny, Rick and Tyler kneeling on the couch, not facing the TV, Bailey on the floor holding his wrist and… Tristan, he was pretty sure it was, standing near to the computer and an upturned chair.

"Bailey got too engrossed in his game and freaked out again when someone supposedly made him lose," Tyler spoke. Again? That made Tristan feel better. It wasn't just him that the boy, Bailey, over-reacted at.

"Tristan, could I speak to you for a moment," Trent asked, though Tristan knew he didn't really get a choice and followed him through to the kitchen.

"It wasn't my fault!" Tristan got out, after they had left the others behind and before Trent had a chance to say anything. "He was the one who over-reacted this time. I managed to keep my cool. All I did was knock his chair slightly and he went ballistic!"

Tristan stopped when he noticed that Trent was looking at him with an eyebrow arched, as if to ask if he was ever going to stop to breathe. After a moments silence, where nobody said anything, Trent spoke. "Have you said sorry?"

"What? No! He came at me!" Tristan protested. He hated apologising, especially if it wasn't him that caused the problem in the first place.

"You knocked his chair which led to the whole problem," Trent pointed out and was once again interrupted by Tristan.

"But that was an accident!"

"That's why you say sorry!"

"I'm not saying sorry. I didn't do anything," Tristan remained stubborn, folding his arms to add emphasis to the fact that he wasn't going back into that room just to say sorry to Bailey.

"Except possibly break his wrist," Trent shrugged, his tone remaining as calm and casual as ever, whilst Tristan's anger seemed to grow.

"Now you're overreacting!"

"I'm not overreacting. It is possible that he could have seriously damaged his wrist."

"Shouldn't have come at me then," Tristan shrugged, adamant not to give in. Surely Trent knew how stubborn he often is by now?

"Tristan," Trent sighed, fed up with the conversation pretty much going round in circles. "Just stop being stubborn for once-"

"No! You just stop getting on my case all the time," Tristan snapped, heading for the door that led into the hallway. "And stop telling me what to do!"

"Tristan," Trent half groaned as the young boy disappeared from sight. Walking up to the door he had just left from, Trent just caught him exiting the house through the front door, slamming it behind him.

* * *

Lachlann was completely oblivious to what was going on downstairs. Instead, he was just preparing to leave the jungle-themed room that he had now worked out to be Floss'. His three new friends, specifically Mo,were desperate to give him a tour of the house. Lachlann hoped he would be shown his new room during this.

"Follow me!" Mo, who had already disappeared out the door,vcalled from wherever he actually was. Lachlann couldn't see him so could only assume that he was out in the hallway. "My room first!"

The tour ended up being all over the place – not that Lachlann minded. He quite enjoyed running around the place like a madman and almost knocking an unsuspecting Carmen – as he had later been told her name was – over when she left her room.

The tour mostly consisted of looking at doors and being told whose room it was and Lachlann only went into four rooms. Mo's, Harry's, Cronin and Tristan's and his.

Mo's room took the longest. He happened to get side tracked by all the junk in his room. A side look to Floss revealed that he called it treasure, and it was a common thing for him to get talking about. In other words, get used to it. Lachlann had taken to Floss. She seemed to be able to tell what he was wondering, or trying to communicate across to them almost instantly.

Harry's room was a lot quickly as he didn't get side tracked by anything. Instead, he gave Lachlann a quick tour around his room before they moved on.

After a lot of standing outside doors and being told the name, and a little information, of the room's inhabitant, the four came to the two final rooms. Harry explained that they had been empty since they first arrived at Ashdene Ridge, after moving from Elm Tree House, ready for any new arrivals that they may have.

Stepping into the room, they were greeted by two twin beds – one against the wall that the door was in, the other bed against the wall opposite the other bed. The walls were a dull white and Lachlann assumed that the room would soon be decorated by its new owners, who he assumed to be Cronin and Tristan.

Lachlann left the room first, eager to see the next one, which he had deduced to be his. Floss, Mo and Harry left soon after him and led the way to the room next door. Lachlann pushed the door open and stepped inside. The room was a little smaller than Cronin and Tristan's but he didn't mind – he didn't have to share this space. The bed was pushed against the far wall. A light brown wardrobe and chest of drawers were the only other things within the room.

"What do you think?" Floss asked. Mo and Harry also turned to look at him, eager for his response.

Lachlann closed his eyes in order to picture the room fully decorated in his favourite colours. Opening his eyes, he grinned and give them two thumbs-up. To Cronin and Tristan, that meant: Fantastic! Lachlann wasn't sure how Floss, Mo and Harry, who had not learnt the made-up sign language that the Gallagher siblings had devised, would interpret it but he didn't care. He knew what he meant.

* * *

"Now, my young apprentice, have you ever heard of Liamade?"

Cronin stared at the brown-haired boy, who was watching him expectantly. "Err, no," Cronin replied. Should he have heard of Liamade?

"I didn't think you would have," The brown-haired boy responded. "Hold on, wait. Before we go any further, which one are you? Cronin or Tristan?"

"Cronin. And you are?" Cronin asked, fed up of regarding him as 'the brown-haired boy'.

"Liam O'Donovan. The original creator of Liamade," Liam answered before indicating towards Frank who, as if on cue, revealed the thing he had been hiding behind his back.

A large two litre bottle, filled with some blue liquid that Cronin had never seen before was in Frank's hand. Liam walked over to the wardrobe and carefully pulled the doors open to reveal many more bottles. Frank placed the bottle he had in his hands down and pulled up the cloth that covered the gap underneath the bed so that no-one could see the large stash of the blue liquid hidden under it.

"What is it?" Cronin questioned after managing to rememberhow to speak, surprised by how much of the liquid was hidden in one space.

"A fizzy drink. My own invention. Want to try some?" Came the reply that Cronin was not expecting.

"Is it safe?"

Liam glanced at Frank, who glanced at Cronin before looking back to Liam and giving a short nod. "We think so," Frank spoke for the first time. As his first words to the new housemate, they were not entirely welcoming.

"I think I'll pass," Cronin decided after a moment's thought. "I'm more interested in what you're planning with it."

"All in good time!" Liam replied, which certainly did not satisfy Cronin's questions. Liam didn't give him any time to protest, however, and had continued speaking before Cronin could interrupt him. "We need your help first with hiding this stuff first."

"You seem to be managing it pretty well," Cronin pointed out. They already had it all hidden. At least, from what he could make out, they had.

"There's loads of it in a wardrobe. When May-Li or Mike come up to put the laundry away, they'll find it," Liam's tone made it sound as if it had been obvious and that Cronin had been stupid not to think of that problem. "We can't put it in the attic. After the last time we did that, Mike seems to have a daily patrol up there to check."

"Where am I meant to hide it? And why are they so against it?" Cronin questioned as more and more questions popped into his head.

"Under you bed, in your room," Liam shrugged before answering the next question. "It may have built up a reputation of exploding."

"Exploding?"

"No need to screech, mate."

"He blew up his foster family with it once."

"The recipe has been adapted since then. It's fine now!" Liam turned to Cronin. "So what do you say?"

Cronin stared at the two like they were made, jaw dropped open slightly. He quickly closed it and gathered his thoughts. "I don't even know where my room is!"

"Not to worry. We do!" Liam grinned as he began to unload the wardrobe. "Some of this may have to go under your brother's bed."

Cronin, who had somehow, much to his surprise, been rendered speechless just nodded at this statement. Eventually, he found the words he needed to form a question. "Why have you got so much of it?"

"Haven't you heard? Mass production is cheaper!" Liam spoke, continuing to remove bottles from the wardrobe. "Frank. Can you be on look-out duty?"

"Fine," Frank agreed before leaving the door.

Removing about twenty bottles from the wardrobe, Liam closed the doors of the wardrobe before picking two bottles up and heading straight for the door. "What are you waiting for? Come on!" Liam briefly glanced back at Cronin as he left. Cronin ran forwards, grabbed two bottles and hurried after the seventeen year old.

* * *

The slam of the front door had captured the attention of the four teenage boys, one of whom was still holding his wrist in pain, and the two care workers who had previously been in the lounge. All six had moved to the hall after hearing the slam and were looking at Trent for an explanation.

"Tristan doesn't like authority," Trent responded simply, not wanting to delve too far into what had occurred in the kitchen, mostly due to Bailey's presence.

"So he's ran off?" Mike asked, glancing towards the door, looking fully prepared to chase after the eleven year old.

"No. He'll be sat in the front garden. Once he's calmed down, he will return as if nothing had happened. It's best just to leave him to it," Trent explained from a year of experience.

"Are you sure?" May-Li asked, sounding a little concerned.

"Trust me, if an adults goes out there right now, no matter your intentions, things will get messy," Trent warned them. He had been hoping to get settled into his new apartment, but decided it would be best to remain at Ashdene Ridge until all three boys had settled in. So far, it seemed that Lachlann and Cronin had managed that. Two down, one to go.

"Mike," Johnny piped up after Rick and Tyler had returned to the TV show they were watching in the longue and May-Li had led Bailey to the first aid kit in the office. "Could I go out and talk to him?"

Unsure, Mike glanced at Trent for guidance from previous experience. "It's worth a shot," Trent agreed, unsure as to how well it would go down Tristan's end. Trent had never had a child volunteer to try and speak to him at this stage before.

Mike opened the front door, allowing Johnny to exit before closing it again, leaving Trent and Mike alone in the hallway.

Tristan looked up from the ground he was staring at when he heard someone coming up behind him. "Hi Tristan." Tristan looked around to see one of the boys from the living room sitting himself down beside him. "I'm Johnny." There was a short silence where Johnny had given Tristan the chance to speak if he wanted to. "Don't let Bailey annoy you too much. I made that mistake many times before. All he really cares about is football. I've learnt just to leave him to it."

"I didn't do it on purpose," Tristan told him, worried from the way that Johnny was speaking that he too believed it was Tristan's fault.

"I know you didn't. Almost the exact same thing happened to me recently with Bailey," Johnny explained. "I think you dealt with it better than I did. I pulled the plug for the computer out of the socket in anger. It meant he lost all the progress in his game. I'm sure you can guess that it just made the situation worse."

"I wished I'd done that now!" Tristan laughed as he attempted to imagine Bailey's reaction.

"I'm sure you'll have another chance to. If you're anything like me, you'll have constant run-ins with Bailey," Johnny told him. At that point, Johnny realised he had been wrong about the Gallagher siblings during his conversation with Tee. Sure, they were still competition but that didn't mean they couldn't be friendly. Besides, Tristan reminded Johnny of a younger version of him and he felt obliged to help.

"Do you get angry easily then?" Tristan asked the older boy, looking up at him, almost in admiration - a feeling Tristan hadn't expected to feel. But this older boy had gone out of his way, and missed part of the TV show he had been watching, in order to speak to him - to help him to calm down faster, and for that, he was grateful. Johnny had certainly done better than Trent ever had.

"In the past, I did a lot. I still do now, just not as much," Johnny answered, as honestly as possible. "I've done things I'm not proud of because of it, but it gets better. If you focus on fighting it, you can learn to contain the anger."

"Could you show me how to?" Tristan asked.

"I'll try to," Johnny nodded along with a slight smile. "Can we go back inside now? It's cold out here!"

"Sure!" Tristan agreed, jumping up onto his feet.

A few minutes after Johnny had gone outside to speak to Tristan, there was a knock on the door. Going to answer it with Mike, Trent would be surprised if they were back already. It often took some time to talk Tristan around if you didn't leave him to it. But right in front of him, walking through the door was Tristan with Johnny. That had to be some sort of record! Without a word to Trent, Tristan followed Johnny into the living room.

"Well," Trent looked up at Mike. "I believe they're all settled in, eventually! I think I'll be off to settle into my apartment then. You've got my number. Just call if anything serious happens."

"Is that likely?"

"With these three, you never know what's coming next!"


	5. Boys vs Girls - Part 1

**A/N: I decided to split this chapter into two parts due to the fact that I would rather try and keep each chapter below 5,000 words and I just wanted to get another chapter up rather quickly after the break I had from writing!**

**I'm not overly confident about this chapter. I did this with a lot of breaks in the middle and it took quite a bit of perseverance. I hope you like it anyway!**

Boys vs Girls

From experience, Tristan knew that he did not sleep well the first night in a new place. Why this was, he did not know for sure, but put it down to adapting to his new bed. Therefore, after saying goodnight to a tired Cronin, Tristan had not been surprised to later learn that his slightly older brother had fallen asleep before him.

The good thing was that Cronin had recently bought a digital clock that projected the time onto the ceiling, or wall, depending on your choosing, in thick, bold red numbers. This meant that Tristan did not have to fumble around to find his phone when wondering what the time was. Instead, a brief glance at the wall told him all he needed to know.

It was about midnight when he heard a strange noise outside of his bedroom door. Listening for a little longer, in order to make out what the noise was, Tristan concluded that it was whispering. Pushing his covers off his warm body, Tristan was suddenly heavily vulnerable to the cold air coming from the fully opened window. Cronin had earlier demanded for it to be open after complaining that he was too hot and could not sleep. Tristan climbed out of bed, his bare feet touching the soft, seemingly new red carpet that occupied his and Cronin's room.

Slowly making his way across the room, Tristan attempted to be as quiet as possible, trying his best not to wake his brother up, knowing how easily irritated he could get when he was tired.

Pulling the door open, Tristan breathed a sigh of relief when the door did not creak. Having been filled with anticipation during his small, yet slow, journey across the room, this news was happily welcomed. Now, in front of him, out in the corridor were two dark figures, both taller than he was. From what Tristan could make out, they were having a mini hushed row. In an attempt to determine who the figures were, Tristan squinted. For some reason that he could not understand, things always seemed clearer in the dark if he squinted. He believed he could make one figure out to be Johnny but, no matter how much he tried, he could not figure out who the other one was.

Suddenly, the figures turned his way and a bright, blinding light (coming from Johnny's torch) was being shone right in his eyes. Tristan's hand immediately went in front of his face, in a desperate attempt to protect his eyes. He valued his sight very much and would not appreciate losing it, or the other four senses that went alongside.

"Tristan?" Hissed Johnny from, what had previously been, the darkness but had since been replaced by a white light.

"Yes, Johnny, it's me. And I'd appreciate it if you stopped trying to blind me!" Tristan retorted keeping his voice as an angered whisper. A second later, the corridor was submerged back into darkness, the torch safely nestled in Johnny's pocket. "Have you never been told about how it's dangerous to shine lights in people's faces?" Tristan added, muttering under his breath.

"Tristan? Cronin's brother?" The other person spoke up for the first time. Tristan recognised the voice and could just about make out what the older boy looked like but had never been provided with a name.

"Yes. And you are?" Tristan questioned, interested to learn the name of whoever Cronin had met earlier on in the day.

"Liam," Came the voice's response.

"Well, Liam and Johnny, could one of you kindly explain what you are doing outside my door in the middle of the night?" Tristan asked, intrigued as to what the other children in his new care home got up to at night whenever the care work on overnight duty was asleep. From his experience elsewhere, no one seemed to do much apart from on the odd occasion where possessions would go missing. Tristan hoped that he knew Johnny well enough to be able to reassure himself that that had not been what the older boys intentions had been. He knew the sort of chaos that often brought and did not want to go through all the angered accusations on his first full day at Ashdene Ridge.

"We were also disturbed," Johnny explained, pulling Tristan out from the safety of his room and moving him closer to the door across the hallway from his. From there, he could hear more whispers coming from inside. "All the girls seemed to have called together a meeting," Johnny thought it was necessary to explain.

"Do they do that often?" Tristan asked, in the dark (quite literally) about what was classed as a normal occurrence at Ashdene Ridge.

"Definitely not before I left," Liam replied and Tristan thought he could just about make out the older boy shaking his head to emphasise.

"What do you mean, you left?"

"Long story. I went to live with my older brother for a bit. It didn't work out. I returned this morning, before you and your siblings showed up."

"Can we get back on topic?" Johnny interrupted as the pair began to get side tracked from the matter at hand. Johnny quickly made sure they returned to the current issue. "In all the years I've been living here, I have not been aware of them meeting at the middle of the night! Can anyone work out what they're talking about?"

"Perhaps if we all shut up for a minute, we would!" Tristan pointed out, growing irritated fairly quickly. He was growing tired and, no matter how much he would deny it, like Cronin, he got irritated easily when he was tired. Standing in the middle of the hallway, with short sleeved pyjamas on wasn't what he had intended to be doing in the middle of his first night at a new care home.

For the first time since Tristan had left his room, the corridor fell silent bar the quiet whispers creeping into the hallway from the room the girls were huddled together in.

Tristan crouched down beside the door, pressing his ear close to the gap between the bottom of the door and the carpet. Focusing his hearing, of which he had always claimed was the best of the three siblings, entirely on the whispers coming from the girl's conversation, he scoffed in disbelief when he managed to make a conclusion as to what they were discussing. Having caught different bits of the conversation, Tristan had required his brain to aid him to completely work out the conversation topic but he had managed it, after small hesitation.

"What is it?" Liam whispered, leaning uncomfortably close to Tristan.

Manoeuvring himself around Liam, Tristan got to his feet and put on his best girly voice to reply, imitating what he had heard. "Why is there a sudden increase in boys? They outnumber us by more than twice as much now." Tristan decided not to tell them that one voice, which sounded to be owned by the oldest girl in the room, had been trying to explain that it's just the luck of the draw as to which care home is able to provide for whoever needs a place to stay.

"They're intimidated by our large number!" Liam exclaimed, striking Tristan as over excited over nothing. "Surely that must prove that they too believe that boys are better than girls." Tristan stared at him, surprised as to how he had come to that conclusion and surprised that he brought up an argument topic that Tristan had thought was left behind in primary school.

"Excuse me!"

All three boys turned in shock to see that the door had been open. Light now filled the corridor. It took Tristan some time for his eyes to adjust to the new light intensity but when they did, it meant that he could get a good look at the girl stood in the doorway. Her eyes were folded, her dark brown eyes staring straight at Liam, not looking entirely happy about what she had heard him say. She looked about sixteen and it was at this point that Tristan wished he knew everyone's names. He made a mental note to ensure he did that before the next night.

He knew the name of the younger girl, standing to the right of Faith with her hands on her hips, also not looking entirely impressed. That was Johnny's sister: Tee. Johnny had briefly introduced the pair after they had returned to the warmth of the care home following their chat outside in the cold.

The girl behind Tee, dressed in pink pyjamas and a fluffy pink and white dressing girl, was also not happy about Liam's comment, shaking her head in disbelief. Tristan knew who this girl was. It was Tee's best friend at Ashdene Ridge: Carmen. They too had briefly met earlier. Carmen had been with Teen when Johnny had introduced Tristan to Tee and made an unnecessary fuss when Johnny turned to leave without introducing Tristan to her.

There were two other girls in the bedroom, both younger than Tee and Carmen. One looked about Tristan's age. She had dark brown hair, tied up into a ponytail, although Tristan couldn't understand how someone would sleep with a ponytail. The other was much younger than the four other girls in her company. She looked about Lachlann's age with curly, ginger hair. He assumed this was Floss, one of the three other children that Lachlann had conveyed across to Cronin and Tristan before bed, with a large amount of excitement on his face as he used the Gallagher sign language. It had been too much for the three of them to pay to learn the more well-known Standard English sign language. They had found quite a few places during their search that offered free lessons but only to children who had lost their hearing and so the three siblings had devised their own to make conversation easier for Lachlann. They would translate for him whenever possible but all admitted it wasn't fool-proof and they would often come across words they hadn't assigned a movement to.

"That had nothing to do with what we were discussing," The oldest girl informed the three boys, who were currently outnumbered. "Don't expect for one minute that we're admitting to that statement being true."

"Girls are much better than some stinky boys!" Floss added on to the older girls comment. The oldest girl turned to face Floss.

"That's not what I was saying, Floss. Boys and girls are equal," She corrected as gently as she could manage.

"Then why are boys always saying they're better?" Floss asked, obviously confused by the whole debate.

"She's got a point," Carmen, Tee and the girl with the ponytail all stated at around the same time, much to their obvious amazement.

"Because it's true," Tristan shrugged, finding the conversation slightly amusing. He had spoken up in order to ensure that it continued a little longer.

"Because they're arrogant," The oldest girl corrected him almost immediately.

"I'll think you'll find that stereotyping, Faith." Johnny pointed out. He didn't believe that he was arrogant in any way. At least, not most of the time.

"What are you guys even doing out in the corridor?" The oldest girl, now revealed to be called Faith, asked the three boys.

"Trying to figure out what you are all doing in there!" Tristan retorted.

"You were spying?"

"No! You disturbed us."

"And then the whispering from Johnny and Liam disturbed me."

"We were interested in joining the girly chatter."

"Liam!"

"It was not girly chatter."

"Whatever you say."

"You're still holding secret girly meetings, aren't you? What do you expect us to think?"

"We expect you not to butt into our conversation."

"We were just listening!"

"You disturbed us though!"

"Just returning the favour, girls. No need to thank us!"

"We won't."

"At least we didn't come up with a stupid comment like 'boys are better than girls'!"

"It was a joke."

"It didn't sound much like a joke."

"Perhaps you have a bad sense of humour."

"Oh, let me guess, that's another thing that proves that boys are better than girls?"

"Did we say that?"

"You were thinking it."

"Are you a mind-reader now?"

Little did they know, as they got angrier, the volume of their voice also increased significantly. Soon, they were close to shouting.

"What is going on out here?"

The hallway quickly fell into silence again as the three boys turned to see Mike at the end of the hallway. It was at this point that they realised how noisy they must have gotten to have woken Mike at the other end of the house.

"Liam said that boys were better than girls, so I said that girls were better but Faith said that none of them were better. Then Johnny said that Faith was stereotyping when Faith said that boys were arrogant and Tristan then said about boys being better than girls again and everyone started arguing!" Floss spoke quickly, revealing the events of the past few minutes to Mike.

"It wouldn't have happened if they weren't holding a secret-" Tristan began to add as Floss had made it sound like the boys had started it all.

"Just go back to bed. All of you, now, please," It seemed to Tristan that Mike was so tired that he could barely put a functional sentence together. To help the tired man out, he decided to make the short journey across the hallway to his room. Shutting the door behind him, he wasn't sure what happened next but since it all went quiet, he believed the others had followed in suit.

"What was all that about?" Cronin asked Tristan as he made his way back into bed. Like Mike, Cronin had obviously been awoken by the shouting happening just outside his room. Sitting up in bed, leaning against his pillows, Tristan began to explain.

By morning, word of the events of the previous night had spread around the Dumping Ground house like a wild fire.

Mike awoke a little later than normal. By the time he reached the top of the stairs, he had confirmed that all the children had awoken and were out of bed. All the rooms were empty, so he assumed they were all at breakfast.

So they were. Entering the kitchen, he was welcomed by everyone sat down at the table, eating their cereal. Yet something was different. There was a divide on the table, made out of books being stacked up on top of each other, forming a mini wall. To one side of the wall sat the five girls, to the other, the eleven boys. Even Floss, who would normally demand for someone to move seats in order to sit next to Harry and Mo, and had straight away declared that she was sitting next to Lachlann upon entering the kitchen for dinner the previous night, had happily separated from her three male friends.

"What's going on now?" Mike asked, exasperated after being woken up in the middle of the night. "This isn't about the boys being better than girls comment, is it?"

All five girls nodded instantly.

Mike sighed, before an idea struck him. "How about we sort this out once and for all? Then we can all go back to normal, without requiring a divide across the table."

For the first time since the comment escaped Liam's lips the night before, they all agreed.

"Right. Boys against girls. Five rounds across the whole day," Mike was coming up with things on the spot, having not planned anything beforehand. He'd never expected the children at the Dumping Ground to get worked up over which gender was better. "Round number one: Baking. Round number two: Five-a-side football. Round number three: a quiz." By this point, Mike was running out of ideas, resulting to saying the first thing that popper into his head. "Round number four: Obstacle Course. Round number five: Orienteering."

Both teams seemed pretty happy with those ideas, though many were interested as to how Mike was going to pull off the final two rounds.

"Right then. When you've all finished eating, meet me in the living room. I'll give you the rules for round one when everyone is there. Meanwhile, I think I ought to fill May-Li in," With that Mike left the same way he had entered.

"What?" May-Li stood in the office, staring at Mike, wondering if he had gone mad after hearing his plans.

"Surely a bit of friendly competition won't hurt."

"The question is how long it will remain friendly for."

Ten minutes later, the children were all gathered in the living room. The boys had successfully managed to hog both couches, much to the girl's annoyance, whilst the five girls were stood in front of the TV. Both teams were heavily awaiting Mike's arrival.

The girls were all dressed in the same colour. At breakfast, they had decided on a colour to wear to make themselves feel more like a team. The time it had taken them to get to their rooms and put on a green t-shirt had given the boys the time to grab both of the couches for themselves. Tee was silently confident about the first round. She wasn't the greatest in the world, but she knew she was quite good when it came to baking. She wasn't sure about the boys, but if Johnny was anything to go by, she couldn't help but feel like they had won the first round already.

May-Li entered the room, with Mike behind her. Upon hearing what the day would consist of, she was quite surprised, but had agreed with Mike when he mentioned that it would benefit them in building up their teamwork skills. She couldn't really argue with that.

"As you all know, round one is baking," Mike reminded them, surveying the two teams as he spoke. "In order to prevent any cheating, we'll have one team in the kitchen at any one time. May-Li and I will be judging."

"Who wants to go first?" May-Li asked.

The boys jumped up immediately and the girls allowed them to go first. They had silently agreed upon themselves to go second so that they would have time to discuss exactly what they were going to make.

The boys ran into the kitchen, chanting as they did so, and building up a competitive atmosphere around them. Gathering around the kitchen counter, a hurried discussion began as the realisation hit that they had not planned anything to do. With no other ideas to fall back on, the boys decided on cupcakes.

During the frustrating process of finding equipment, ingredients and creating what could only be described as deformed cupcakes, everyone was too preoccupied to notice three of their teammates slip away and return a few minutes later only to place things in some of the cupboards.

Whilst the majority of the boys had a lack of confidence about their attempts, Liam looked suspiciously enthusiastic about their chances.

Leaving the kitchen, and passing the girls, the group had mixed feelings. Bailey was just looking forward to the next round, not caring whether they won or lost the first one. If they lost, they'd be able to catch up with the football, if they won, they'd be two-nil up after two rounds. Either way, he didn't mind. Mo, meanwhile, was not overly enjoying the day, even after the first round. He didn't like competitions and, although he had both Lachlann and Harry with him, he knew that Floss was on her own, without any of her closest friends.

As the boys gathered round in the living room in order to listen to Bailey's pre-match prep talk, much to Johnny's annoyance, the girls were already underway in the process of making a three tier Victoria sponge cake. Their steps already thought out beforehand, all five girls were getting on with their different tasks, some finding it easier than others. It didn't take to long for the cake mixtures to be prepared. Placing the multiple tins into the oven, the girls stepped back in order to relax.

In the living room, Bailey's prep talk was draining on and Tristan was unsure as to whether the football mad boy realised that he was repeating himself so much that Tristan could now guess what he was going to say without needing to listen. It was at that point that a scream from the kitchen broke out and Liam, who had looked like he had been waiting for something to happen since they left the kitchen in a messy state, leapt to his feet and ran into the kitchen, the rest of the boys, especially Cronin and Frank, hot on his heels.

Entering the now very wet kitchen, the boys were met with the sight of the girls being drenched in pink liquid exploding out of the cupboards around them. The boys' laughter was quickly broken when Mike, who with May-Li had been overseeing the round, got to his feet. It was him shouting Liam's name over the laughter that had silenced him. "Liamade? Again?"

An hour later, the two teams were stood outside awaiting the whistle to begin the football game. The boys, who had lost the previous round, also had their plans messed up. After Frank and Cronin had admitted to have helped Liam, all three had been banned from the second round. Bailey, who had previously planned for the trio to be in his starting five, had to change his plans.

On one side of the garden stood Tee, Carmen, Jody, Faith and Floss all prepared to begin. On the other side, Bailey had Rick, Tyler, Tristan and Johnny huddled together as he set out tactics. Liam, Frank, Cronin, Mo, Lachlann and Harry were all stood to the side of the make-shift pitch, marked out by bits of clothing, pre-prepared banners waving in the air.

Eventually, the five boys emerged from their huddle. Within seconds, barely long enough for Tristan to take his place in the goal, the whistle was blown and play began.

Within five minutes, the spectators felt like they were watching a tennis game. The ball was booted from one half to the other so quickly that heads were on a constant turn.

After the first half, which had consisted of ten minutes, the boys were ecstatic. At 2-0 up they were certain that they had this round in the bag.

Two minutes into the second half, Tyler had stumbled and twisted his ankle, resorting in Bailey being forced to take Mo on in replacement.

Five minutes into the second half and Bailey was growing frustrated. The girls had levelled the playing field by scoring two goals in three minutes. Arguments were breaking out between the boys. Bailey had, on both occasions of the girls scoring, blamed Tristan for letting the balls into the goal. Tristan could take it once. The second time, however, he was off the pitch in an instinct, keeper gloves left in front of the goal for Lachlann to pick up in his place.

Nine minutes into the second half and the score had remained the same. Whilst the girls tried their best to get past the boys, their passes would constantly be intercepted. Whenever Bailey got his foot on the ball, a desperate uncontrolled shot would return possession back to the girls. It was this that led to the boys defeat.

After Bailey returned the ball to the girl's possession, they successfully passed the ball through the boys defence. With just Lachlann to beat, Jody nipped the ball into the bottom right corner.

Full time arrived. The girl's victory of 3-2 gave them a second point. Two rounds down, three to go.

Tristan had always been more hopeful about winning the third round. Whilst he enjoyed football, he, Cronin and Lachlann had attended many pub quizzes in their lives. He could only hope that this would help the boys to win the round. If the girls managed to win again, it would be a hat trick for them and a game over for the boys. If Tristan was sure about anything, he knew that he was not going to let the girls win quite so easily.

The third round, like the second, called for two teams of five people. Whilst the girls had their decision made for them, the boys had to make up their minds.

"Well, I think that-" As quickly as Bailey had begun, Tristan interrupted him.

"You chose the team last time and that didn't work out so well," Tristan shot at the older boy, still irritated about being blamed for two of the girls' goals. "I suggest myself, Cronin and Lachlann since we've attended many quizzes before, as well as Rick in case there's a music round and Mo as he seems to know random things which could be used in general knowledge."

"What about sport?" Liam spoke up, breaking his silence for the first time since his argument with Mike about his disqualification from the football round.

"Sorted," Cronin's voice was full of confidence which must have set Liam's mind at ease as he did not provide a counter-argument.

"Any disagreements to Tristan, Cronin, Lachlann, Rick and Mo taking this one?" Johnny asked, looking around all the boys and lingering on Bailey, almost expecting a complaint. To Tristan's surprise, Bailey remained silent.

All the boys but those participating manoeuvred themselves around the living room with the intention of sitting down to watch. After promising not to give any clues to answers, in order to put the girls' suspicious minds at ease, they were allowed to take a seat.

The first topic was one both teams had expected and prepared for. 'Sport' led to both Faith and Cronin stepping forwards to receive a question. Both players were given a whiteboard in order to place their answer before revealing.

"On a British dart board," Mike began. At this point, Faith pulled a face whilst Cronin smirked. Tristan smiled. Although he couldn't see Cronin from where he was sat, he was sure that he brother would be confident about this one. As well as quizzes, dart boards were also highly common in pubs and Cronin had shown a large fascination in the game for a seven year old boy. "What number lies between 5 and 9?"

Cronin's answer was down in seconds. He slouched back in his chair, allowing a confident expression to appear on his face, in order to pressurise his opponent. Faith was taking no notice in what Cronin was doing and completely ignored him. Her answer was written before fifteen seconds had passed.

On Mike's countdown, the whiteboard's were turned around. Cronin, who had returned the answer of 12, muttered, 'Yes' after seeing Faith's answer of 15.

"1-0 to the boys," Mike confirmed what Cronin was already 99% certain of. "The second topic is Music."

Whilst Rick was nominated after little discussion, the girls were less fortunate. Floss was certain she would be able to answer any question on music because of her dancing abilities whilst Jody believed it was between Carmen and Tee. After a few minutes of hushed discussion, Tee took the seat behind the whiteboard.

"_Teenage Dream _is the title of a song sung by who?" Was a question that Tee was ready for. Rick, meanwhile, had been hoping for something completely different.

With the revealing of the answers, it was one a piece.

"The third topic is children's TV," May-Li announced.

Little discussion was needed for this one. Within seconds, the two youngest participants: Lachlann and Floss, had taken their place near their respective white boards.

"In the movie 'Aladdin' who does Jasmine meet in the marketplace?" May-Li revealed the question.

Lachlann let out a relieved smile. Although it had been a while since he had last watched Aladdin, it had, at one moment in time, been one of his favourite films. He could just about remember how much he annoyed Cronin and Tristan because of his obsession.

Upon the revealing of answers, the boys celebrated. "2-1!" Tristan exclaimed, high-fiving Lachlann as he returned to his seat with the rest of his teammates.

"Penultimate question. The topic is spelling!" May-Li revealed.

The boys groaned, spelling obviously being something that they were all not very confident about.

"I'm terrible at spelling," Tristan confessed but looked rather hurt when Cronin backed him up by encouraging Mo to take the spelling round.

The girl's decision was between Jody and Carmen. After a substantial amount of arguing, with both wanting to take the round, Jody got up to take her place.

"Spell conscience."

Jody grinned as she hurried to write down her answer. She had recently had this one in a spelling test at school.

Mo, meanwhile, was not so lucky.

"2 all," Mike announced, stepping forwards after the answers had been revealed. "One question to go. Carmen, if you win this one, the girls win the entire competition. Tristan, if you win, we go onto the fourth round: the obstacle course."


End file.
